Classic Halo Esports and HCS Grassroots 2019 Discussion Thread

Recommended Posts

I love the term "Classic Halo". It sounds elitest? Cool, thats because the first (3) games of this franchise changed gaming history, and everyone knows it.

Why downplay it? Im good on that.

Because it acknowledges the fact that Halo has changed (not evolved). I'm not saying change is bad, but rather (obviously) the way Halo has changed is. It's a microcosm for the divide of the community between the core golden formula and the addition of sprint and other gimmicks.

When I say "I like Halo", I have to clarify that I like "classic" Halo, or "the older" Halo, because Halo 5 is still labeled "Halo" despite being a different game.

2

Share this post

Link to post

I don't like the term classic because it implies things like archaic, aged, dated, not-modern etc. It really sounds like a "back in my day" thing where people can't let go of the past, when in reality people just want a game built on a solid foundation without any superfluous bullshit like ADS, Sprint and the superman abilities crammed in there.

I'd love to just call it proper Halo or real Halo, but that sounds super douchey and arrogant.

Share this post

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

While I don't think I've ever heard anyone call Reach "classic" Halo, if I did then it seems to be more of a Bungie Era/343 Era divide instead of any one mechanic.

As people pointed out here though, none of the games are perfect, especially on MCC. Of course it's super frustrating to have the game not register 4 shots in a row on CE, or not count 1 bullet and not have a melee finish the kill in H3. However, there are people that would take those frustrations when they have a shitty connection vs positioning not mattering because everyone can clamber and sprint-thrust to you in .5 seconds from anywhere on the map, or have freaking loadouts in a Halo game.

If regular Halo 5 was what the H5/3 playlist was (ie. no advanced movement of any kind) it would have been much more liked by the community. So not to put too fine of a point on it, people want smooth and simple gameplay, not thrusting around spamming button combos like we're playing Mortal Kombat.

Edit: This is coming from someone who actually enjoys H5 and has put a ton of time into it. I just think the simpler gameplay was more enjoyable.

Share this post

Link to post

While I don't think I've ever heard anyone call Reach "classic" Halo, if I did then it seems to be more of a Bungie Era/343 Era divide instead of any one mechanic.

As people pointed out here though, none of the games are perfect, especially on MCC. Of course it's super frustrating to have the game not register 4 shots in a row on CE, or not count 1 bullet and not have a melee finish the kill in H3. However, there are people that would take those frustrations when they have a shitty connection vs positioning not mattering because everyone can clamber and sprint-thrust to you in .5 seconds from anywhere on the map, or have freaking loadouts in a Halo game.

If regular Halo 5 was what the H5/3 playlist was (ie. no advanced movement of any kind) it would have been much more liked by the community. So not to put too fine of a point on it, people want smooth and simple gameplay, not thrusting around spamming button combos like we're playing Mortal Kombat.

Edit: This is coming from someone who actually enjoys H5 and has put a ton of time into it. I just think the simpler gameplay was more enjoyable.

Stop. The throwback playlist was literal asscheeks. I can write a 5 page paragraph on the dumpster fire that thing was.

Also can we stop saying H5 had no positioning skill? Or positioning didn't matter? Because that's such a laughable statement to make. I understand not liking the game that much but Jesus. If people actually like the throwback playlist more than HCS rules then it's not about having a good, competitive game.

Share this post

Link to post

Rant time. I despise the term "classic Halo" because it's a super nebulous term that glosses over the fact almost every single Halo released has been fundamentally different than its predecessor.

there's a bit of variance in terms of dip-chewing CE guys calling H2 'not real Halo' or a few people lumping in Reach with 'classic Halo', and so on, but ffs, everyone on earth agrees that H1-H3 is, generally speaking, classic Halo, that Reach is sort of the bridge between classic Halo and modern Halo, and then 343's games are 'modern Halo'. it isn't just sprinting, it's everything; map design, art design, campaign lore, gameplay philosophy, playlist management, etc. H4 -- which, in retrospect, was sort of a weird beta for H5 -- and H5 itself are still Halo but play and feel quite differently.

anyway, real talk, can we please not let this thread become the H5/Infinite thread?

on topic, Penguin was grinding H3 all afternoon, which makes me wonder how many more of the H5 kids will make the switch ...

2

1

Share this post

Link to post

Stop. The throwback playlist was literal asscheeks. I can write a 5 page paragraph on the dumpster fire that thing was.

Also can we stop saying H5 had no positioning skill? Or positioning didn't matter? Because that's such a laughable statement to make. I understand not liking the game that much but Jesus. If people actually like the throwback playlist more than HCS rules then it's not about having a good, competitive game.

1) Read where I said I actually enjoyed Halo 5 a lot.

2) W/R/T the playlist, of course there are issues. H5 wasn't designed to be played that way. My point was that if you built it from the ground for that style it would have been much better. Stuff like the strafe acceleration (or movement in general), jump height, bullet magnetism, etc. were all designed with H5 in mind so even though you can tweak it you can't make it perfect.

3) I may have gotten a bit hyperbolic, but you cannot say that positioning in Halo 5 is just as important as it was in CE/2/3 with a straight face. It's not totally worthless, but it's incredibly watered down in comparison.

4) I almost only play the HCS playlist because of the fact that it's the most competitive for H5. I just think the H3 playlist should have been the cored idea around which H5 was molded from the very beginning.

Share this post

Link to post

on topic, Penguin was grinding H3 all afternoon, which makes me wonder how many more of the H5 kids will make the switch ...

Hopefully shotzzy puts a team together. Would be a shame if we lost our probably most mechanically gifted player to cod when he's not even of age to compete yet. Would be interesting to see the crazy stuff he could pull off in H3.

Share this post

Link to post

Hopefully shotzzy puts a team together. Would be a shame if we lost our probably most mechanically gifted player to cod when he's not even of age to compete yet. Would be interesting to see the crazy stuff he could pull off in H3.

this is a heretical thing to say but the H5 individual skill gap is significantly bigger than the H3 skill gap ... I just don't know that his work ethic would pay off in quite the same way (except for sniping, that's way harder in H3)

Share this post

Link to post

Halo 5 is so bad, tied for the worst Halo with Halo 4. When Infinite comes out, nobody will ever touch it again. Halo 3 on the other hand is one of the greatest video games of all time and is far and away the most played game on MCC.

Share this post

Link to post

If I don’t use equipment in h3 I’m not screwed or at a disadvantage. But if I don’t use sprint,thrust,clamber etc, I’m screwed. I HAVE to use these abilities, where In classic halo I don’t HAVE to use button glitches/combos, I don’t HAVE to use equipment!!! That ice princess is why classic halo is and always will be better than a game like HALO 5 GUARDIANS!!!!

Can't really agree with this. You put yourself at a massive disadvantage by not using Regens, Bubbles and Power Drains,these are all brokenly overpowered items.

However, equipment is much better than abilities from a design standpoint. They are single-use map pickups that the user has to go out of their way to secure and obtain, much in the way of a powerup. I have no issues with equipment being the "fourth leg" of the golden triangle. It's a shame that Bungie couldn't design any type of equipment that wasn't either way too powerful (Flare, Power Drain, Regen), a literal invincibility button (Bubble) or virtually useless (Trip Mine, Radar Jammer).

The only good ones are Grav Lift and maybe deployable cover. Had they spent more than 10 minutes on these they could've become a good addition to the franchise as they are not inherently broken and incompatible with Halo's core mechanics like sprint, Thrust and ADS are.